The Cubit, an ancient unit of measure free Christian script 1 Script #1, What is a Cubit? Basic theme: A newscast showing a reporter interviewing a scientist who has discovered an ancient cubit. Cast: 2 people total, not gender specific: one reporter and one scientist. Script: News person (standing next to the scientist): "Sir, please tell us about your incredible discovery." Scientist: "I would be glad to. We have recently discovered that people 3,000 years ago used an ancient method of measuring called a Cubit. A cubit is the distance from your elbow to the tip of your middle finger. It is important to realize that everyone's cubit is different. In those days the leader or king of each nation would establish their own cubit as the national measuring standard." News Person: "Could you demonstrate that to us?" Scientist: "Yes I can. Come over here and we will measure your cubit." (They walk a short distance to a table). "Place your elbow on the end of this ruler." (The scientist helps the reporter to positions their elbow on the ruler and measures their arm). "Your Cubit is (whatever the number is).

Now I will measure my cubit." (The scientist places their elbow on the end of the ruler and measures it). "My Cubit is (whatever the number is). As you can see, our cubits are different. This creates a problem when you tell me to make something based on your cubit and I make it based on my cubit. That is why the ancient kings mandated that the cubit was a standard size and everyone used that standard." Reporter: "Can you tell us about some of the things that were made with Cubits thousands of years ago." Scientist: "Yes, there are several places in the Bible that mention cubits. In Exodus 25:10-11, God gives these instructions to Moses on the building of the Ark of the Covenant. "They shall make an ark of shittim wood (acacia wood); two cubit and a half be its length, a cubit and a half its breath, and a cubit and a half its height.

And you shall overlay it with pure gold within and without shall you overlay it, and you shall make upon it a molding of gold round about" "In Exodus 38: 9-13, God gave instruction on the building of The Tabernacle In The Wilderness. "And he made the court; for the south side the hangings of the court were of fine twined linen, a hundred cubits; their pillars were twenty and their bases twenty, of bronze, but the hooks of the pillars and their fillets were of silver. And for the north side a hundred cubits, their pillars twenty, their bases twenty, of bronze, but the hooks of the . . ." "Today we have the National Bureau of Standards that establishes the standards of all of the weights and measures that we use. Noah could not have built the Ark if everyone had not worked together using the same standard. Noah and his family counted the cost and made a firm decision to do things God's way. They knew that if they argued about every little thing, they would never get done before the flood came." Reporter: "Thank you very much for all of that information about the Cubit Mr., or Mrs. Scientist".

(The reporter looks into the camera) "This is your reporter on the spot asking you, have you weighed the cost of not doing things God's way? God has a plan and you are part of it. It is up to you to follow that plan. Have you given your heart to Jesus? Are you living the life that God wants you to live? Please pray with us now, father I pray that you would forgive me of my sins and come into my life. Fill me with your presence, your wisdom, and your strength. Lead me and guide me by your Spirit in Jesus name." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Skit #2, The trouble with Cubits Basic theme: Using a Rod Serling, Twilight Zone flavor, two people try to build a wall (or anything else) using Cubits. The Narrator (In the style of Rod Serling) leads the audience to the skit. The scene opens with the Narrator standing in front of a construction site. Builder 1 and Builder 2 are in the background trying to frame a wall. After the Narrator's opening statement, he leaves the scene.

Cast: Narrator: A male in a suit. A Rod Serlingesque person. Two Builders (*BE SURE TO USE SAFETY EQUIPMENT*): Can be anyone (male or female), but should be very different in size (one big and one small). They should be dressed in work clothes, substitute names for (Builder 1) and (Builder 2). Builder 1 is small and Builder 2 is tall. Special props and notes: The script is laid out as if the builders were connecting a new wall to an existing wall but please feel free to adjust the situation so that it works out for you. I have put some situations into this script just to demonstrate how hard and awkward it was to work with each person's Cubits. All of the measurements are made by each of the builders actually placing their arm on the thing that is being measured and moving it along until the measurement is complete. Do not use a measuring reed or ruler. While the builders build with Cubits, they swap jobs as the project progresses. First one measures and the other cuts, then they swap jobs back and forth.

The wall is all out of shape, one stud is long, the next stud is too short, the next one is too long, etc. The studs are not the same distance apart, it is a real mess but they don't notice until the end! Because of the cost of actually building a real 2" x 4" frame wall as a backdrop, you may wish to blue background the builders and super impose them over a Popsicle stick model wall. Using Popsicle sticks, make a model of the wall the builders have been building. Be sure to use safety equipment. Script: Narrator (close up, head and shoulders shot): "Let us take a minute to ponder the fate of mankind. Does man measure up to the task at hand? Does it make sense to build a new world with the tools from our ancient past? (PULL THE CAMERA BACK TO SHOW THE BUILDING SITE) (Builder 1) and (Builder 2) are testing the limits of man's knowledge and skill.

We look in on (Builder 1) and (Builder 2), Builders by trade, builders with a sinister problem." Builder 1: Builder 1 says to builder 2, "Ok the boss wants us to build a wall across here and he wants it as high as that line up there" Builder 1 points to the line on an existing wall. I will put down a base plate board and you can measure from the top of it to the line up there. (Builder 1 puts a base plate board down and nails it in place. (As the building progresses, you will clearly see that there is nothing "normal" about this wall. I know that wall framing is normally put together on the floor and then stood up into place. But it will be funnier and easier for the people viewing this skit to see how messed up the wall is if they build it stick by stick standing up.) Builder 2: Ok, I'll measure how high the line is. (Starting by laying on the floor, Builder 2 places their elbow on top of the base plate board and starts measuring cubits with their arm up the wall until they reach the line. The line should be high enough that they need a small ladder.

Remember to allow for a top plate in the measurement.) "The height is (whatever the measurement is). Builder 1: (Builder 1 puts another board on the saw horses and measures the board with his/her cubit and using a square, marks the board and then cuts it.) "Here you are." (Builder 2 helps Builder 1 install the board.) Builder 2 then tells Builder 1, " OK that board was (whatever the measurement was) Builder 2: Builder 2 goes to the sawhorse, measures, cuts another board, and brings it back to the wall. (Builder 1 and 2 install a few more boards taking turns measuring and cutting until they have a total of at least 4 studs installed. You may wish to do some time compression to take out the slow parts.) Boss: The Boss returns and looks at the crocked miss shaped wall and compliments them on a great job. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Skit #3, How big was the Ark? Basic theme: Demonstrate the size of Noah's Ark as compared to other things like a football field.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Section #2, Audience participation. A. Show the audience how they can keep a record of how their cubit grows as they grow, on a piece of paper. B. Show a comparison between adult cubits and kid cubits. Use Handbreadth, and Fingerbreadth C. If you can find enough space, demonstrate the size of Noah's ark. Remember, it's longer than a football field. A football field is 300 ft. long. The Ark was 450 ft. long. We're not talking about the S.S. Minnow here. D. You can also show how confusing it is to build things with a unit of measure that is different for everyone that uses it. E. Funny examples of using a cubit the wrong way. A. Actor as "Cupid" gets confused and finds out that he is in the wrong movie. B. Two actors are helping Noah build the ark. One yells the length of a board to the other. The second actor cuts it and gives it to the first actor. The board doesn't fit because their cubits are different.

This is funnier if one person is real big and the other is real small. Notes from the author: This script was written and distributed by: Apple Sauce Kids on the Internet at ~aplsauce. Our store is youth-resources.com, or we can be E-mailed at aplsauce@youth-resources.com Please feel free to use this script: copy, teach, translate into other languages, place on the Internet and electronic Bulletin Boards, and distribute for non profit personal ministry reasons, as often as you wish. Yes, you can copy this lesson and use it on your web site, but please leave these "Notes from the author" with the script. Freely you have received this script, and freely you should give it to someone else.

(Written 8/30/2001) - - - - - - - - - - - - - Noah's Ark Replica Made By Johan Huibers Opens Doors In Dordrecht, Netherlands | The Huffington Post Noah's Ark Replica Made By Johan Huibers Opens Doors In Dordrecht, Netherlands 07/30/2012 10:33 am ET 1.6k David Moye Pop culture journalist, HuffPost Weird News An authentic replica of Noah's Ark that opened a few weeks ago in the Netherlands could soon be flooded with tourists. The ark was designed by a millionaire contractor and creationist named Johan Huibers, to be as close to the original biblical description of Noah's vessel as possible. The ark described in the Book of Genesis measured to 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. A cubit is supposed to be the distance of a man's arm from the elbow to the fingertips, so Huibers used his own arm and his ark came to be around 450 feet long, according to Sky News.

Huibers envisioned building the model s20 years ago when he had a dream that the Netherlands was submerged in a flood like the Old Testament destruction. This wooden recreation, four years in the making, is the second one he's built. In 2004, he built a half-scale version that he sailed around his native country's canals, ChannelsTV.com reported. It attracted a wave of publicity when Huibers opened it to tourists and he used the proceeds from admissions to build the full-size ship. He hoped to take it to London, but had to dry dock those plans when Olympic officials asked him to use safety rules that weren't around in Noah's time. "We would like to carry 3,000 people on the boat (so) you can't say: 'We'll leave it like that,'" manager Deborah Venema-Huibers told SkyNews. "You have (to clear) everything with the fire department, as it is all wood. It took such a long time that we had to skip the Olympics." There are some concessions to modernity. Huibers used Swedish pine instead of the "gopher wood" mentioned in the Bible.

Huibers says that's okay since, in the Bible, God told Noah to use a "resin wood." It's also built around a steel frame. Another concession to modernity, or at least to animal rights, instead of two of each kind of animal, there are only a few live chickens on the boat and a whole menagerie of life-size plastic critters such as giraffes, elephants and donkeys, NewsTrackIndia.com reported. "Johan's Ark," as Huibers boat is known, is opening in a period where Noah's Ark-related news stories are flooding the media. Earlier this year, ArkEncounter, a proposed theme park in Kentucky, aroused attention when the state's governor, Steve Beshear, giving it a $43 million tax break. Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky is reportedly working on a movie of the Noah's Ark tale that would feature Russell Crowe in the title role. Former Baywatch actress Donna's D'Errico has spent the last two years organizing a trip to Mt. Ararat in Turkey to actually look for the remains of the Ark.

In addition, Aaron Fruh, right-wing pastor in Alabama, came to Chick-fil-A's defense last week by claiming that same-sex marriage brought about the great flood that Noah endured. Dutchman builds replica Noah's Ark after flood dream - CNN.com Dutchman builds replica Noah's Ark after flood dream By Tim Hume, for CNN Updated 12:52 PM ET, Mon July 30, 2012 Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds. Photos: Johan's ark Johan's ark – Johan Huibers, a wealthy Dutch Christian, has built a full-scale replica of Noah's ark according to the measurements given in the Bible. Hide Caption 1 of 7 Photos: Johan's ark Johan's ark – The Bible gives the ark's dimensions using the ancient measurement of the cubit -- the length of a man's arm from the elbow to the fingertips. The arks, both biblical and contemporary, are 300 cubits, or about 137 meters, long and 30 cubits, or about 14 meters, high.

Hide Caption 2 of 7 Photos: Johan's ark Johan's ark – Huibers has filled his ark, intended to act as a biblical museum to inspire people with the story of Noah and the flood, with a menagerie of plastic animals, and an aviary of real birds. Hide Caption 3 of 7 Photos: Johan's ark Johan's ark – The Bible describes Noah's boat as made of "gopher wood," but experts disagree as to what this is. Huibers' ark is built from the metal hulls of 25 old barges welded to a single frame, and covered in Scandinavian pine. Hide Caption 4 of 7 Photos: Johan's ark Johan's ark – Huibers has filled his boat with life-sized plastic animals to give visitors more to engage with. Hide Caption 5 of 7 Photos: Johan's ark Johan's ark – The boat contains sleeping quarters, a theater, a restaurant and conference facilities to seat 1,500 people. Hide Caption 6 of 7 Photos: Johan's ark Johan's ark – This is not Huibers' first ark.

He finished construction of a half-scale version in 2004, following a dream 12 years earlier about a flood sweeping the Netherlands. Hide Caption A Dutch businessman has built a replica of the Biblical Noah's Ark It is built to the proportions specified in the Bible, and filled with plastic animals The man built the ark after a nightmare that the Netherlands was flooded He hopes it will help spread the message of the Bible A Dutchman has built a replica of Noah's Ark to biblical proportions, following a dream his homeland would be flooded. Johan Huibers, a wealthy businessman, used the ancient measurement of the cubit -- the length of a man's arm from elbow to fingertips -- to build the vessel to the dimensions specified in the book of Genesis. The finished craft -- which has just been opened to the public on the Merwede River in the Dutch town of Dordrecht -- is 300 cubits long (about 450 feet or 137 meters), 50 cubits wide (about 70 feet or 21 meters), and 30 cubits high (about 45 feet or 14 meters).

Floods force evacuations in Costa Rica Huibers has filled his ark, which will operate as a "Bible museum," with life-sized plastic animals and an aviary of live birds to give visitors more to interact with. "We want to tell people about God," Huibers told AFP. "We wanted to build something that can help explain the Bible in real terms." It is not Huibers' first ark. He completed his first, a half-scale replica of Noah's Ark, in 2004, and used it to take tourists on canal trips, before beginning work on a full-scale version in 2008. The origin of the project stems from a dream Huibers said he had in 1992, in which the low-lying Netherlands was flooded by the North Sea. More damage expected after floods in North Korea kill dozens "The next day I bought a book about Noah's Ark. That night while sitting on the couch with my kids, I looked at it and said: 'It's what we're going to do,'" he told AFP.

"I have always been a dreamer." He resolved to build the ark, to inspire children with the biblical story of how Noah and the inhabitants of his Ark survived the flood that, according to Old Testament, washed the world clean of sin. Despite his best efforts, it was impossible to adhere entirely to the biblical description of the Ark. Genesis describes Noah's boat as made of "gopher wood," but experts disagree over what this is. Instead, Huibers and his team built the boat by welding together the metal hulls of 25 barges into a single frame, which was then covered with Scandinavian pine. Weighing about 3,000 tons, the boat contains sleeping quarters, a theater, restaurant and conference facilities to seat 1,500 people. Huibers initially wanted to sail his ark to London for the Olympics to share his message with sports fans. But he was forced to abandon his plan to sail across the North Sea after authorities raised safety issues. WWF: Noah's Cubit Summary This study explores common cubit definitions, highlighting the possibility of the ark being larger than current estimates. Previous studies have used a short cubit to show that there was ample room on the ark.

Likewise, stability and seakeeping are also underestimated when calculated using a short cubit. However, a conservative analysis of the strength and construction of the ark is exactly the opposite - the long cubit becomes the "worst case" scenario. If the timber hull of Noah's Ark had to survive heavy seas, then structural issues (such as leakage due to hull flexing) need to be assessed. If Moses' record of the ark dimensions could possibly imply the use of the long cubit, then structural analysis should employ this scale as a conservative estimate. Cubits Used in Previous Studies. "Most writers believe the Biblical cubit to be 18 inches (457mm)" (Ref 1, p181). Some studies even use the shortest possible cubit - the 17.5" (445mm) short Hebrew cubit. This is a very conservative estimate in terms of the size of the ark. The following table shows cubit lengths chosen by various authors. This table gives the impression that the 18 inch cubit is the limit to the cubit length, but the reasoning is often nothing more than an attempt to be conservative.

These short cubits do not have any strong historical links to early civilization - which were Noah's immediate descendents. Year Siloam tunnel measurement compared to Biblical record (Close to the Hebrew common cubit) (See also Cubit References ) "The actual length of the cubit varies from 18 inches to 25 inches." (Collins 1977) Encyclopedia Britannica says the cubit was "usually equal to about 18 inches". In the case of Noah's Ark however, we are interested in the definitions of the earliest cubits - not the most common. "The probability is that the longer was the original cubit." (Easton's Bible dictionary). Ancient cubits varied in their level of standardization. The Royal Egyptian cubit was remarkably consistent and well defined. In Mesopotamia, cubit standards did not survive (probably due to wood construction) - so investigation is limited to clues in building proportions. Not all cubits were defined as the distance from elbow to fingertip either, and there were usually hand-width, finger width (digits) or spans subdividing the cubit. Ancient cubits could be classified into 2 main groups - long and short.

The approximate height of the person from whom the cubit was measured is tabulated below. GROUP Cubit Issues Is Noah's cubit too ancient to investigate?. The cubit has disappeared today, although in some countries it was still in use until around 1960 when it was replaced by metric units. There are many examples of measurement systems lasting through the ages. In a continuous civilization, an important base-unit like length is not easily changed. Consider the effort it took to deliberately convert to the metric system. For example, the standard railroad gauge (4ft 8 1/2") is a strange choice - the same gauge that was used in the hand drawn carts of the English coal mines, that found itself in coach-building and eventually trains.. We measure angles using 90 degrees for a right angle. We have never stopped counting 7 days as a week. The origin of many measurement systems can go back centuries. It is worth considering that Noah's cubit would have been the only unit of length immediately after the flood and that Noah's three sons were technically skilled builders. Furthermore, Noah lived for another 350 years in the new world and his son Shem was a contemporary of Abraham.

Abraham lived some time in Egypt and had influence (the Pharaoh liked his wife). Noah's cubit could easily appear in these early civilizations. In fact, it is reasonable to expect Noah's cubit to dominate every culture until the Babel incident. The Hebrew for Cubit is "ammah", derived from mother, as in "mother unit of measure". The same word is used throughout the Old Testament as a unit of length. This could convey the idea of a measurement passed down from an ancestor, who defined the original or 'mother' cubit. Incidentally, the word for mother is common throughout many languages. As for standards, the Egyptian cubit has survived intact in cubit standards of wood and stone, as well as in the meticulous dimensions of their architecture. For thousands of years this cubit varied less than 5%. So it is quite likely that even the actual length of Noah's cubit may have been passed down relatively intact, at least to a few civilizations. The Long and the Short of it. Noah's Ark landed in the middle east. The tower of Babel was almost certainly constructed in the same cubit as the ark.

If dominant cultures were to travel the least distance (or even stay put), then the ancient empires most likely to have continued with Noah's cubit would probably come from Mesopotamia or its vicinity. There are hints that Babylon was built on the site of the original Babel. These cultures would still have an infrastructure that relied on this unit of measure - hence the cubit from Sumeria should be a pretty close estimate. The three ancient civilizations in this area have surprisingly similar cubit definitions - the Egyptian royal cubit more closely defined then the other units. Since the Hebrews spent 400 years in Egypt, it would be natural to assume Hebrew cubits were an inherited Egyptian measure. However, when the subdivision structure is compared, the Hebrew cubit looks more like a Babylon import. Not that it matters much, look how similar they are; Civilization 20.6" 524 Known for their meticulous construction and love of mathematics, the Egyptian cubit was an accurate 20.6" (524mm). This length can be quite readily derived from the study of construction proportions - such as the chamber measurements in the Pyramids of Gezih.

Better than this, actual cubit standards have been well preserved in the dry conditions. See Petrie's derivations of the royal Egyptian cubit. In Mesopotamia, wooden "cubit rods" decay in the wet soil, so the length is obtained from buildings that were probably laid out in whole cubits. A copper standard was unearthed, but the general picture is that cubits outside of Egypt were less exact. Modern scholars find variation in these measurements due in part to the lack of reliable records, as well as the tolerance limitations of ancient construction. Did Moses know two cubits? In his final speech before the Sanhedrin, Stephen described Moses as "educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians" (Acts 7:22). Moses was obviously familiar with the Egyptian royal cubit and intelligent enough to query its origin. Probably not a Pharaoh - the short length of the typical sarcophagus attests to this. Imagine Moses as a young man completing his studies in mathematics being handed the Royal Cubit standard to calculate the area of the palace foyer. Imagine the temptation to put this famous cubit against his own arm. Surely Moses would have spotted the anomaly - this was not Pharaoh's forearm.

For this reason, many commentators claim the Egyptian royal cubit was an exaggeration. The problem with this charge is that three different empires all exaggerate - equally. If some Pharaoh had felt the need to appear larger than life, he could at least have chosen a cubit superior to his rivals from the Persian Gulf. Worse still, the later Egyptian empire was defining a cubit slightly less than the average on the other side of the Arabian desert. A more realistic assumption would be that all these early civilizations inherited their cubit length from the one source. Moses, the author of both Genesis and Deuteronomy applies a different cubit definition when he writes about a contemporary measurement of the enormous bed of King Og. Not rendered in the NIV, the OKJ translation of Duet 3:11 describes the "cubit of a man" as the unit of measure used here. The giant Og, king of Bashan slept in a bed 9 cubits long. By the short cubit (18") this is 13 1/2 feet, by the long cubit almost 16 feet. (Now that IS excessive).

In the phrase "cubit of a man", the word for man is "iysh" which is usually associated with a particular man, not "adam" which is more general - like "mankind". Moses, the obvious author/compiler of both Genesis and Deuteronomy, appears to be making a distinction between the old cubit and the cubit defined by typical forearm length of his day. From Moses' point of view, Genesis was history, but Deuteronomy was current news "is it not in Rabbath of the children of the Ammon? Deut 3:11". Moses, educated in Egypt and familiar with the Royal Egyptian cubit of 20.6" (525mm), never made such a distinction in Genesis. This indicates Genesis was measured in an ancient cubit, not by the forearm of Moses' day. Since Moses is demonstrating his awareness of two different cubits, he should have applied himself to the task of defining Noah's cubit also - perhaps with a comment like "according to the cubit of Noah". It appears he was satisfied to let the reader assume it was the "old" measure - not distinguished from the Royal Egyptian cubit.

See also: Revell Bible dictionary Solomon knew two cubits. 2 Chron 3:3. ...Solomon was instructed for the building of the house of God. The length by cubits after the first measure was threescore cubits... Since Solomon was capable of piecing a bit of history together, God told him to build with the building cubit (the old long ones), not the everyday commercial cubits (the new short ones). Later, in Hezekiah's time, the short cubit was used later in Siloam tunnel (confirmed by modern measurements), so the "cubits after the first measure" must have been the other ones. Long. An exaggerated cubit ... Or are we getting smaller? Shakespeare lived in a tiny house, and the old houses of England had low doors and short beds. The English evolutionist would naturally assume our increasing stature is a part of the evolution of man. Combine this with a few small Egyptian Pharaohs and you have a tidy precept - ancient people were small. Unfortunately, this does not work in Africa where supposed 'primitive' tribesmen can average well over 6 feet.

It must also ignore the impressive physique of the Pacific Islanders 'discovered' by European sailors in the previous century, and a host of other anomalies. Even today, evolutionists are surprised when an ancient human is taller then expected. The Bible paints a different picture. The original creation was perfect, including extreme longevity and obvious mental and physical prowess. Good health is more likely to allow a person to grow to their correct height - at least in terms of population averages. Deteriorating genetics and the startling nutritional ignorance of many ancient urban people (e.g scurvy) would go a long way to explain their short stature. So if the ante-diluvians were taller, we would expect Noah to be tall. The Ancient cubits correspond to a person around 6ft 4" tall. This is tall, but not impossible. In fact it is far more reasonable than an antediluvian cubit of 17.5" (163cm - 5ft 4in tall), almost certainly too small for Noah. Dimensions are not converted. The dimensions of the ark are 300 long, 50 wide and 30 high.

These are round numbers and the proportions are excellent for ship stability and sea-keeping performance. (4) Most readers would assume these were the original numbers God gave to Noah. Assuming these figures were recorded (probably by Shem), Moses would have compiled them into his manuscript some years later. Being well educated and alert, Moses would have been capable of converting these figures into the equivalent units of his day. However, the numbers do not appear to have been modified. Conversion from one cubit to another would produce ugly numbers. For example, if the original length had been 261 Royal Babylonian cubits, this would be 251 Royal Egyptian cubits. If Moses had then rounded off to give dimensions in an apparent single significant figure (3 hundreds, 5 tens, 3 tens) the error could be as high as 20% (For example; rounding off 251 to the nearest hundred adds an extra 49/251 = 19.5%, which is more than the difference between the common short and long cubits.) Worse still, if the depth had been rounded down from 34 to 30 (12%) then the L/D ratio is modified by 35%.

The Hong study showed that the dimensions were optimal within 20%. In other words, rounding off to a single significant figure could force the proportions outside the optimal values. The most reasonable assumption would be that Moses copied (or was told) the original dimensions as exactly 300 x 50 x 30. Setting the precedent for later Jewish scholars, Moses was no doubt careful to maintain the original numbers. People like their kings to be tall. The Bible gives many examples of height being revered among men. God is displeased with this tendency, and gives them a dud king that looks the part - King Saul. The fact that he looked like a king indicates that kingship was linked to tall stature.(1 Sam 9:2). Antediluvian superiority aside, Noah's cubit would likely have come from a king, and a king would most likely have been tall. Reverence for ancestry is another common theme - especially towards the early patriarchs. It would be reasonable to assume that the owner of the forearm defining Noah's cubit was probably someone old and famous. Anyone old was probably taller, and anyone famous was probably tall.

Discounting Nephilim due to their extreme ungodliness, a 20.6" cubit (6ft 4" person) is then quite a reasonable choice - simply a tall antediluvian. Some Jewish tradition has Noah is the realm of the giants. The cubit does not show this however, a 20.6" forearm length is a tall person - but no giant. This misconception might be explained by the deterioration of health and stature after the flood, making a 20.6" cubit seem superhuman. (e.g. Short stature of Egyptian Pharaohs). The Bible gives some examples of height being revered among men. God is displeased with this tendency, and gives them a dud king that looks the part - King Saul. The fact that he looked like a king indicates that kingship was linked to tall stature.(1 Sam 9:2). Antediluvian superiority aside, Noah's cubit would likely have come from a king, and a king would most likely have been tall. 28.15% 28.77% The mid-sized person flying planes in the UK had a cubit of 502mm (19.8").

UK airmen were approx 1.5% taller than the US army measurements of 1988, dropping to a 1% advantage in the more competitive 97th percentile. So these servicemen were slightly taller than normal. "Clinical normality" in height is defined as about the range 54"-79". The average stature worldwide is 1650mm ï¿½ 80mm (64.96" ï¿½ 3.15") for men and 60.5" ï¿½ 2.95" for women. (Ref 5). Considering Noah was only 10 generations from Adam and got the bronze medal in the longevity records , it would be safe to assume he was a lot healthier (and taller) than the average male on the planet today, or in the UK air force for that matter. Yet a cubit of only 457mm (18") cubit corresponds to 28% of a mere 1632mm (64.25") stature, well below the world average today.

The picture is even more grim and Noah becomes vertically challenged if the 25% Mishna rule is applied. In any case a longer cubit would be a more realistic choice. The longer measures such as the Nippur cubit or the Royal Egyptian cubit are a better match to archeological evidence, and to the Biblical framework of a creation in bondage to decay. (Romans 8:21). A structural study of Noah's Ark should take the more realistic long cubits into consideration. Implications of a long cubit for the ark. One reason to prefer the shorter cubit is that it defines a conservatively small ark. This is the best way to defend the ark against accusations of insufficient space - "How could all those animals fit on the ark". Space requirements have been documented by John Woodmorappe in "Noah's Ark: A Feasibility Study". Using the 18" cubit (p50), he concludes that the animals would require only half the floor space - and this is without putting cages one above the other (p16). There is 15 feet between floors which is ample headroom.

However, when making a case for the structural integrity of the ark, the long cubit should be used. Whenever the forces on an object are mass-related, the stresses increase in proportion to scale. This defines a maximum size limit to buildings, bridges, aircraft and machines. The larger the vessel, the more critical the structure. For example, the bending load applied by waves is considered to be proportional to the length of the vessel to the power of 3.5. See Wave Bending Moment Consider a rectangular beam (BxD) cantilevered over a length (L), supporting its own weight (W); Stress = 3 x W x L / (B x D2). If you double the scale, you will double all the dimensions, which will increase the weight 8 times. So Stress = 3 * 8W * 2L / (2B * (2D)2 ) = 6WL/(BD2), which means stress has also doubled. Generally speaking, as scale increases mass related forces (like weight) increase by scale3, but the cross-sectional area only increases by scale2. Since Stress = Force / Area, the stress increases by scale3/scale3, or scale1 - i.e.

Stress is proportional to scale. This is known as the square cube law. (Ref 6,7) Therefore, larger structures need to be more stout. Thus a dinosaur is heavy boned, yet a spider can have whisker thin legs. A flea can leap a hundred times its own size, but an elephant can barely get off the ground. A small gymnast has an advantage, a cat can fall out of a tree and walk away, and Tyrannosaurus Rex was probably rather clumsy. So the fact that an ant can carry seven times its own weight is not so amazing after all. In engineering, the same applies to boats, buildings and planes. Have you noticed how we haven't really made things much bigger than we did 30 years ago? We can't unless we find a material that is many times stronger than what we had before. Assuming sufficient wave size (probably a reasonable assumption), a longer cubit makes structural strength a more significant issue for the ark. Large size demands a stout structure. We need to keep the stress within safe limits, so any increases in size must have a corresponding increase in the stoutness of structural elements. In the previous example we wanted to double the length of the beam.

This requires a 4 fold increase in breadth and depth, increasing the section modulus 64 times, but the mass only 32 times - thereby maintain the same level of stress. So building a larger ark is not simply a case of scaling everything up. The increase in length requires a even greater increase in breadth and depth of the structural beams. This obviously results in a maximum size for the vessel - when you end up with a structure of solid wood. All wood and no rooms! So how does this effect the ark? The table below shows what happens when you increase the size of the cubit. This assumes a draft of 15 cubits (half the depth) which could be interpreted from the account of the floodwater being more than 15 cubits above the mountain tops. (Indicating that the ark could not run aground) Gen 7:20. Though not conclusively fictitious, the Babylonian long cubit of 24" is less likely because it did not appear in multiple empires - the best indication of prior date. (especially prior Babel dispersion). Selecting the most likely cubit is no trivial matter, the mass of the ark could increase at least 50%. 1.

The Genesis Record; Henry M Morris, Baker Books, 1976 2. National Biodynamics Laboratory 3. 1988 Anthropometric Survey of U.S. Army Personnel: Methods and Summary Statistics - a technical report (NATICK/TR-89/044) authored by Claire C.Gordon, Thomas Churchill, Charles Clauser, Bruce Bradmiller, John McConville, Ilse Tebbetts, and Robert Walker Wendy Murray 4. Ministry of Defense.(00-25 Part 2) Human Factors for Designers of Equipment Part 2: Body Size. Feb 1997 5. Anthropometrics and Design. Lecture notes. 6. Square cube law (comparative anatomy). #square . 7. Galileo and the Square-cube law. In his book on mechanics Galileo founded the science of strength of materials. He was the first to show that if a structure increased in all dimensions equally, it would grow weaker. His theoretical basis for this is now known as the square-cube law. The volume increases as the cube of linear dimensions but the strength only as the square. What is a cubit?

By: Steve Shirley A: The word "cubit" comes from the Latin word "cubitum" (Hebrew: "ammah") meaning "elbow." The word "cubit" is used 263 times in the Bible, with all but 4 uses in the Old Testament. A cubit was a unit of measurement which was very imprecise. Technically, it was the distance from the elbow to the end of the middle finger. Obviously then, since this distance varied from person to person, we can see why it was imprecise. However, it appears that a cubit basically fell between lengths of about 18" to 21." The Bible appears to primarily use the smaller size, while other cultures used the larger sizes.

Apparently, archaeologists have discovered a number of rods from different cultures which were used to measure a cubit, and these average around 20.6." Smith's Bible Dictionary lists three cubit lengths, and gives them these names: "The cubit of a man or the common cubit (see: Deut 3:11)," "The old Mosaic or legal cubit," and "The new cubit." The larger cubit size appears to be mentioned in (Ezek 40:5), which says "in the man's hand was a measuring rod of six cubits, each of which was a cubit and a handbreadth (app. 3")." This would make the cubit described as 21" (18" + 3"). The first time this unit of measurement is used in the Bible is in describing Noah's Ark. It was 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high (Gen 6:15). Most modern translations (i.e. NIV & NLT) today convert this to 450' long, 75' wide, and 45' high.

This correlates to a cubit being 18." In (1 Sam 17:4), Goliath's height is said to have been "six cubits and a span." A "span" was the distance between the tip of the thumb and and little finger with the hand fully open, generally about 9 inches (or half a cubit). This would have made Goliath about 9'9" tall.

Question: What, in the Old Testament, was 300 cubits long, and 30 cubits high?
Answer: Noah's Ark